New Delhi: India’s new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman might not have revealed her plans to accelerate economic growth, but the avid Twitterati have been giving notes and advice about her next moves on the social media platform.
Inundated with congratulatory messages, the Twitter handle of the new Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs also contains in-depth advices on the next level of economic reforms and growth-oriented moves that she should undertake.
As per Sitharaman’s Twitter handle, messages with themes such as the upcoming Budget 2019, disinvestment, new economic reforms such as GST 2.0 have been gaining traction.
This is understandable, as in the last 48 hours, macro data points have painted a gloomy picture of the economy, showing a slowdown in the GDP growth rate and contraction in core industries’ production.
Additionally, farm distress, unemployment and subdued consumer sentiment have aroused fears of a short-to-midterm slowdown. The slowdown has become evident in sectors such as automobile, FMCG and aviation.
On the other hand, the relief came from another set of data which showed that India met its revised fiscal deficit target for the last fiscal year.
Even the various employee associations of the many departments under her ministry assured Sitharaman of their support, which she will require to boost revenues and control expenditure.
However, on whether any advice was adhered to or not will only be known once the hustle-and-bustle of the appointment subsides, and work begins on the full Union Budget for 2019-20.
The Finance Bill will be presented July 5, in which the new government’s priorities and programmes will be known. Besides the Budget, the Economic Survey, which gives the status of the country’s economy, will be presented in Parliament on July 4.
On Friday, Sitharaman after serving as India’s second woman Defence Minister, the first being Indira Gandhi, became the second woman to head the Finance Ministry, after the former Prime Minister.
Sitharaman was among the three women who became part of the Union Cabinet in the 17th Lok Sabha. Before Sitharaman, Indira Gandhi was Finance Minister for a short period. Prior to the Defence Ministry, Sitharaman held the Commerce and Industry portfolio.